High speed three-way valve



United States Patent 3,107,692 10/1963 Forwald Inventor HansruediAumayer Suhr, Switzerland Appl. No. 825,563 Filed May 19, 1969 PatentedDec. 22, 1970 Assignee l-T-E Imperial Corporation Philadelphia, Pa. acorporation of Delaware HIGH SPEED THREE-WAY VALVE PrimaryExaminer-Henry T. Klinksiek Attorney-Ostrolenk, Faber, Gerb and SoffenABSTRACT: A high speed valve is formed of a hollow, cylindrical sleevemember which moves between two spaced, coaxial sealing rings. Thecylindrical valve is connected to an operating piston. A source of highpressure is connected to an annular region surrounding the cylindricalvalve, and a cylinder port which is to be connected to high pressure orexhaust pressure is disposed in communication with the top of the sleeveand is isolated from the high pressure source when the sleeve is closedagainst the first seal. An exhaust port is disposed adjacent the secondseal so that movement of the hollow, cylindrical sleeve between itsupper and lower positions connects the operating cylinder alternately toeither the high pressure source or the exhaust port. The sleeve isflared outwardly so that differential pressure tends to hold the sleeveagainst either the first or second valve seal when the sleeve reachessuch a position.

men SPEED THREE-WAY VALVE This invention relates to valve structures,and more particularly relates to a novel high speed three-way valve inwhich a pneumatic conduit can be quickly connected to either a highpressure source or an exhaust port.

Apparatus of this type will have various applications in which highpressure is to be connected to and removed from a particular conduit.Typical of these applications would be in the circuit interruption fieldin which an electrical contact is moved between an engaged anddisengaged position with a cooperating contact by the application ofpneumatic pressure to the contact.

The present invention provides a novel configuration for a valve whichincludes a hollow, sliding sleeve movable between two spaced sealingrings. When the sleeve is in a first sealing position, a pressureconnection is formed between the cylinder port and an exhaust port sothat the cylinder port is connected, for example, to atmosphericpressure.'When, however, the valve sleeve moves to the second sealingring, the high pressure port is connected to the cylinder port, with theapplication of high pressure to the cylinder port occurring in anextremely short time after reception of an operating impulse. In orderto insure high speed operation, the valve sleeve is connected to pistonwhich moves between spaced electrodynamic coils in the manner describedin U.S. Pat. No.

26,445 in the name of Otto Jensen, assigned to the assignee of thepresent invention. Alternatively, the piston can be operated by impulsesfrom a solenoid magnetic system. This piston plays a further part in theoperation of the valve system, whereby, when the sleeve is in one of itspositions, high pressure is applied to the piston to hold the sleeve inthis sealing position. A portion of the valve is then tapered outwardlyin a novel manner so that when the sleeve is in the other sealingposition, the sleeve will be held insuch a position due to differentialpressure applied against the outwardly tapering configuration.

Accordingly, a primary object of this invention is to provide anovelhigh speed three-way valve in which the total valve operating timewhen switching a conduit from a relatively low pressure condition to arelatively high' pressure condition is less than 10 milliseconds.

Another objectof this invention is to provide a novel high speed valvewhich is simple in construction and highly reliable.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent from thefollowing description taken in connection with the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a top view of the valve structure housing of a valveconstructed in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 1 taken across the section line2-2 in FIG. 1. v

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 2 when taken across the sectionline 3-3 in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 2 taken across the section line4-4 in FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 2 taken across the section line5-5 in FIG.-2.

FIG. 6 shows a circuit diagram forv operating the valve of FIGS. 1 to 5.

FIG. 7 shows a second embodiment of thevalve structure of the presentinvention. which uses a solenoid system in place of an electrodynamicdrive system.

Referring first to FIGS. 1 to 5, it will be seen that the novel valvestructure consists of a'stack of plates 10, ll, 12, and 13 which areheld together by a plurality of bolts such as bolts l4, l5, l6 and 17a.Plate 10 is further shown in FIGS. 1 and 3; plate 11 is shown in'crosssection in, FIG. 4'; and plate 13 is shown in cross section in FIG. 5. Q

Plate 11 has an external cylindrical wall portion, best shown inFIG. 2as wall portion 17,.the interior left-hand end surface of which issealed to the reduced diameter portion of plate 10 by the gasket 18. Theright-hand end'of cylindrical wall porand nests with respect to areduced diameter portion on plate 13. Plates l2 and 13 are sealed to oneanother through the O- ring seal 20.

If desired, gasket 18 may be circular, as shown in dotted lines in FIG.3, where, however, the gasket 18 is moved further to the right in FIG. 2so that it will not interfere with flow of fluid in channel 30.

Plate 10 is then formed with a U-shaped opening 30 which extends to theexterior of the valve structure. Opening 30 is connectable in anydesired manner to some pressure conduit which is to be connected eitherto high pressure or is to be exhausted to ambient, or some otherpressure source.

The right-hand surface of plate 10 in FIG. 2 then receives the uppercircular sealing ring 31 which will be described more fully hereinafter.A lower circular valve seal 32 is then secured in the left-hand surfaceof plate 12, as shown in FIG. 2. A cylindrical valve sleeve 33 which isaxially movable between valve seals 31 and 32 is mounted within inwardlyextending web 34 of plate 11 and within seal ring 35a carried on theinterior of web 34.

A piston 35 is then connected to the sleeve 33 by connection rod 36secured to spider 37 of sleeve 33. High pressure conduit 38 is thenconnected into a suitable opening in cylindrical extension wall 17 ofplate 11. The right-hand cylindrical extension of plate 11 contains anexhaust channel 39 (FIGS. 2 and 4) which exhausts to ambient or to somepressure other than the high pressure connected to conduit 38.

The right-hand surface of plate 12 then contains a spiral electricalwinding 40, while the left-hand side of plate 13 contains a spiralwinding 41 to form the windings of an electrodynamic drive system.Piston 35 is constructed of a conductive material such as copper so thatthe piston acts as a short-circuited winding positioned between twowindings 40 and 41, thereby to define an electrodynamic drive system ofthe type described in the previously referred to U.S. Pat. No. re26,445.

The piston 35 is provided with a plurality of openings for exhaust portsof a small diameter such as the openings 42 and 43. A biasing spring 44is then connected to the bottom of piston 35 and biases the piston tothe left in FIG. 2 with the spring 44 being received in a relativelylarge closed chamber 45 formed within plate 13.

The coils 40 and 41 of FIG. 2 are schematically shown in FIG. 6 alongwith an electrical drive circuit which could be of any desired type. InFIG. 6, however, an AC source is connected to terminals and 51, withthese terminals connected to the primary winding of a suitabletransformer 52. The trans former secondary winding is then connected inseries with a resistor 53 and rectifier 54 which charge capacitor 55 andin series with a second resistor 56 and 'a second diode 57 which chargesa second capacitor 58. Capacitors 55 and 58 are energy storagecapacitors, and are connected in series with the main electrode of asuitable controlled rectifier or other switching device 59 and the twocoils 40 and 41. Any suitable firing circuit is then connected to thegate terminal 60 of controlled rectifier 59 in order to dischargecharged capacitors 55 and 58 through the series connected coils 40 and41.

The operation of the system of FIGS. 1 to 6 is described in thefollowing:

With the valve sleeve 33 in the position shown, the cylinder 30 isconnected directly to the exhaust port 39 so that, if exhaust port 39 isconnected to ambient pressure, cylinder 30 will also be ambientpressure. Note that sleeve 33 has conical end sections 33a and 33b. Thehigh pressure of conduit 38 bearing against the outwardly flaringconical section 330 of sleeve 33 will define a differential pressurewhich tends to force sleeve 33 into engagement with seal 31.

If it is now desired to apply high pressure from conduit 38 to the port30, the circuit of FIG. 6 is activated by firing controlled rectifier59, thereby discharging the capacitors 55 and 58 into the seriesconnected coils 40 and 41.

Since the piston 35 is immediately adjacent coil 40, a strong tion 17 isconnected to and sealed to plate 12 by gasket 19, force of repulsion iscreated between coil 40 and the piston 35, which acts like ashort-circuited winding, so that the piston 35 is rapidly moved to theright in FIG. 2. This causes immediate opening or cracking of the valveseal 31 with the right-hand end of sleeve 33 very quickly engaging seal32. The high pressure of conduit 38 is now applied to piston 35 and tothe interior surface of the inwardly directed conical end portion 33b.The differential pressure on this inwardly end portion of sleeve 33moves sleeve 33 quickly to the right in FIG. 2 and maintains the sleeve33 in its engaged position with respect to valve seat 32, with thepressure appearing on the piston 35 being gradually equalized throughthe pressure relief ports 42 and 43 and until the chamber 45 reaches thepressure of the high pressure conduit 38. The high pressure of conduit38 is now applieddirectly to cylinder 30, while the engagement betweenseal 32 and the right-hand end of sleeve 33 prevents application of suchhigh pressure to the exhaust port 39.

In order to operate the valve backto the position of FIG. 2, the impulsecoil system of FIG. 6 is reenergized so that a sharp impulse currentflows through series coils 40 and 41. Since the short-circuited turn orpiston 35 is now adjacent winding 31, the strong repulsive forces willbe set up between these two windings to move sleeve 33 to the left andopening seal 32. This exhausts the high pressure within sleeve 33through port 39 so that the high pressure in chamber 45 against piston35 creates a high differential pressure to move piston 35 intoengagement with seal 31. Once the sleeve 33 seals against the seal ring31, it is held in this position by the differential pressure due to thehigh pressure on the exterior of sleeve 33a.

Note that if there is a failure of the high pressure in conduit 38, orif this high pressure is removed, the spring 44 will maintain the sleeve33 in the position shown in FIG. 2.

As pointed out previously, the above noted novel valve has anexceptionally high speed of operation and can be less than milliseconds.This extremely high speed is obtained by using high differentialpressures for actual movement of the sleeve 33 after the electrodynamicdrive system is operated to crack the valve seat. Thus, when the valvesleeve is to move from left to right in FIG. 2 and immediately afterthe, cracking of seal 31, high differential pressure is applied from thehigh pressuresource 38 to conically tapered surfaces 33a and 33b ofsleeve 33. Since the movablemass is relatively low in the novel valve ofthe invention, extremely high speed movement is obtained for sleeve 33in moving toward the seal 32. Moreover, the differential pressuresmaintain the sleeve in its sealed position against seal 32.

In moving-the sleeve 33 from right to left in FIG. 2, applicant againobtains the advantage of the high differential pressure immediatelyfollowing the cracking of seal 32 which operates to exhaust the pressurefrom'the left-hand surface of piston-35 so that the relatively highpressure in chamber 45 drives the piston 35 and sleeve 33 to the leftwith great speed insealing engagement with valve seal 31.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that while the conduit38. has been described as the high pressure conduit and the conduit 39the exhaust conduit andconduit as the conduit to which pressures arecontrollably connected, the

function of these various conduits can be exchanged.

Referring next to FIG. 7,'the valve shown therein is essentially thesame as the valve of the embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 5, and similaridentifying numerals have been applied to similar components. In FIG. 7;however, the impulse coil operating system is replaced by a solenoidactuating system. Thus, solenoid plungers 80 and 81 are provided withextending shafts 82 and 83, respectively. Each of plungers 80 and 81 arebiased toward their respective end of the valve by springs 84 and 85,respectively. Plunger 80 is surrounded by a winding 86 and a magnetstructure.87, while plunger 81 is surrounded by a winding 88 andmagnetic structure 89. The end of shaft 82 is spaced from the center ofspider 37, while the end of shaft 83 is spaced from the right-hand endof shaft 36.

In operation, energization of either winding 86 or 38 will driveextension 82 or 83 to create a hammer-blow" on valve 33 to crack eithervalve seat 31 or valve seat 32, respectively.

. tions.

Although this invention has been described with respect to particularembodiments, it should be understood that many variations andmodifications will now 'be obvious to those skilled in the art, and,therefore, the scope of this invention-is limited not by the specificdisclosure herein, but only by the appended claims.

Iclaim:

i. A high speed valve comprising, in combination;

a. a valve housing;

b. a hollow axially movablesleeve slidably movable within said housingand having a first outwardly tapering end and a second inwardly taperingend;

0. first and second annular valve seals mounted within said housingwhich are concentric with one another and with said movable sleeve, anddisposed at opposite ends of said sleeve; said first ,and secondannularvalve seals spaced from one another by a distance greater than thelength of said sleeve; said first and second ends of said sleeve beingengageable with said first and second seals, respectively;

d. a first pressure conduit communicating with the interior of saidfirst annular seal;

e. a second pressure conduit communicating with a volume external ofsaid first end of said sleeve;

f. a third pressure conduit communicating with a volume external of saidsecond end of said sleeve;

g. and operating means connected to said sleevefor movingsaid sleevebetween said first and second annular valve seals, thereby to connecttogether said second and third pressure conduits and said first andsecond pressure conduits, respectively; h. at least one of said first,second and third pressure conduits having a higher pressure than theothers, thereby establishing a differential pressure on said sleeve tomaintain said sleeve in engagement with either of said first or secondannular valve seals.

2. The high speed valve of claim 1 which further includes a pistondisposed in said housingand concentric with an con nected to saidsleeve;one side of said piston communicating,

with the interior. of said, second sleeve; the other side of said pistoncommunicating with a pressurizable volume; and" leakage openings in saidpiston; whereby differentialpressure on said piston moves said sleevebetween said first and second, seals at high pressure after the seal atsaid first and, second. seals is initially broken by movement of saidsleeve bytsaid.

operating means.

3. The high speed valveof claim:2 wherein said operating; means consistsof first and second energizable windings.

disposed on oppositesides of said piston; said piston formed ofelectrically conductive material and acting as the movable winding of anelectrodynamicdrive system.

4. The high speed winding of claim 3 wherein said second-I pressureconduit is connected to high pressure.

